Death Wears Jockey Shorts

Hey! We don't spend much time around kids, so its fun having our niece and her 4 cool children in town. Last night I wore a hat made of balloons at a family-friendly restaurant, and today we're off to Lakeside, Denver's vintage amusement park. I also ate some booger, vomit, and salmon-flavored jelly beans, much to the amusement of the young ones. Today's link is a page of quotes, many of which are serious in nature but thought-provoking as only the Sun Magazine can be. Take the link to the home page and consider subscribing to the longest-running magaizne in America with no advertising.

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/specialbeams.html

By the way, those jelly beans, marketed under a Harry Potter label, really taste like their horrible names.Yuk!

Good fuckin' morning! It's a fanfuckingtastic day here in Denver and I trust you'll enjoy the link, which is, incefuckindentally, a legal brief defending the use of the "F" word. Have a nice fucking day...

http://thesmokinggun.com/archive/fword1.html

A cool morning to sit in zazen on the front porch in the gathering light. Okay, with all the Seabiscuit hype in the air ( the movie is about as good as anyone could have made it, which is very good indeed), here's a link to a wonderful 1938 Baltimore Sun piece describing Biscuit's defining race against War Admiral. The writing is superb and its a kick to think of Grantland Rice banging away in a room full of typewriters, one of which was being banged on by H.L. Mencken.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/seabiscuit/filmmore/ps_match.html

It is Sunday and a bit cooler and cloudy, a temporary relief from what has become a VERY hot summer. I thought I had conquered myaversion to heat at a sesshin (Zen meditation retreat) in Hawaii some years ago, but it is catching up with me again, mates. I am thinking of attending a professional wrestling event this evening but am wrestling myself over the cost. A grudge match, in a cage, loser leaves town...
Here's a disturbing link to America's always loveable interlocking directorates, and a beautifully wrought website...

http://www.theyrule.net/theyrule.html

Here's an interesting site from the State of Texas. Its a list of last meal requests from death row inmates and I think you'll find the menu interesting no matter how you fell about the death penalty. Its more about how you feel about 6 cokes with your last meal. It does, however, have a way of personalizing people from whom it is easiest to turn away...

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm

And what, pray tell, will you be putting on your last meal request? Remember, that as it states on the site, you may not actually get it...

Hot hot hot. Here's a link to Robert Williams' work. Its toxic, it's amusing, what's not to love???

http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/williams/williams1.html

My favorite is Enchiladas de Amore, but that's just me. In the future these links will be active, but for now, just copy and paste them in your Go window. Your servant...

OK, OK, so I din't have time in Toronto or Lake of Bays to blog. So sue me. Discovered (again) that my ignorance knows no bounds. Vistited Art Gallery of Toronto (Google it), and saw Tom Thomson's evocative and emotional landscapes for the first time, and learned of the Group of Seven. Was especially taken with the transcendental work of Lawren Harris. His cold, icy landscapes are a revelation. See some of them, albeit in a commercial environment at:

http://www.groupofsevenart.com

go to bottom of page and click on Lawren Harris. Images enlarge nicely. You won't be sorry.
More lame observations about Canada later today. I am very, very tired.

Of course Elvis Costello was perfect. A classic 4 piece band, no bullshit, nothing but 2hrs 20 minutes of great songs, meticulously and joyfully performed. Don't miss him when he comes to your town, or go to somebody else's town and see him. I have to go to Canada now, but I'll leave you with a link that has brought me great happiness. Having Al Pacino go "Hoo-Wah!" every time Windows opens and Porky Pig go "Th-th-th-th that's all folks!" on shut down, to say nothing of a duck quack instead of a cash register noise on Quicken, can make your life a better place.

http://dailywav.com

I'll make an effort to post from the Great White North, eh?

The constant need for stimulation-
A psychiatrist to whom I was once forced to see (don't worry, it was a long time ago.I pose no immediate threat at this time...) labeled me an "emotional thrill-seeker". Someday she'll be sorry for saying those things. (kidding heh,heh). Anyway, by way of emotional thrill-seeking, we're off to see Elvis Costello on this hot summer night. I'd link you to a fan site but you can Google him yourself and get all you'd ever want. His most recent album, "When I was Cruel" is as good as any of his work, which is remarkable given the length of his career. Most songwriters have relatively brief periods during which they write their best stuff. Chuck Berry composed most all of his groundbreaking and timeless numbers in a 2-3year period, and never matched himself thereafter. You don't have to think too long to come up with a long list of songwriters who created great material in short streaks. I'll let you know in the morning, if I have time before we leave for Toronto for a short break, how the concert was. Here's a totally unrelated link that will change your life. Be careful, you can spend a lot of hard-earned cash buying used books, including anything you can think of at all, at:

www.abebooks.com

hint-search by price...

Motivation...
My father, who was born in 1904, spent a lot of time in sales, mostly of prescription drugs, and he had some wonderful little motivational posters in his office. There was one that said, "The bee that gets the honey doesn't hang around the hive", and another admonishing that "You can't do business from an empty wagon". We've all seen the modern equivalent of this concept: every airline magazine or onboard catalog has a page or two of posters featuring nature photos (hungry lions, crews rowing, etc.) encouraging loyalty, teamwork, and all the other stuff that is supposed to make us happy hamsters in our respective cages. Here's a link to a delightful collection of motivational posters from the 20's. The graphics speak of another time, as do some of the ideals being taught, and they print out in small sizes in color very smartly and can be used as cards. Check out all the years from the Gallery or Home buttons, and get motivated, or hit the bricks!

http://www.hellerposters.com/1929.htm

Hey hey! Looking forward to a quick trip to Canada to see some friends with a cabin on a lake north of Toronto. Maybe get lucky and see the Northern Lights. Definitely go see Oliver Mtukudzi, the Zimbabwean tuku music master. African pop music so rich, so diverse, so beautiful and easy to learn much more about at

http://www.afropop.org/

Search Mtukudzi through the Artist search area in upper right of homepage. You won't be sorry. If you follow this blog and take some of the musical advice and don't like what you end up hearing most of the time, I'll eat my earplugs!

Hot and Tired...
Mostly slept through the weekend, though reading some of William Gibson's "Virtual Light" and Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Neraly Everything". Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" is a wonderful book that transforms the present into the future as seen through the eyes of a Sci-Fi master. Science Fiction has never been a form that has held my interest, though the concepts are amusing. But Gibson is different. His blog is worth your time:

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp

Check out the archives for June 11, 2003, which details the microscopic contents of 9/11 dust and is fascinating.Go forth and be curious!.....

Cranky...
I had the misfortune to see a bit of Jimmy Buffett performing on television at the the health club this morning. He remains living proof of Mencken's maxim: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." I'm pleased for his fans that they have no idea how pathetic they look, although a mass-suicide on the Today Show would have been more entertaining than Mr. Buffett slaughetring "Everybody's Talkin", a beautiful song by Fred Neil, a soulful writer whose sandals Buffett isn't fit to lick. Also, Mr. Buffett has the limpest handshake I have ever felt. He does however, pay his bills. This I know because he bought a log cabin I built in Old Snowmass, Colorado, and I took some of the paper myself. But enough bile. (gak) More of Fred Neil, who died 2 years ago, on a future post. Here is a great site on H.L. Mencken. Make your day and read his creed on the first page.

http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html

Okay, so we went to the funeral, which was a sad affair, and I mean that in the current slang usage of "man, that is a sad sandwich you're eating". With a couple of notable exceptions. most of those who spoke focused on themselves and some tiny aspect of the deceased's life (he was allergic to peanuts), and went on interminably in 100 degree heat. Just leave me by the side of the road. If I want to hear boring details about YOU, I'll stay alive as long as possible. Let's all try on keep all this in mind when we're asked to speak at a funeral. And now, what you've been waiting for, more details about ME! Here's a link to the band I spent five years toiling in:
http://lotharandthehandpeople.com/

Beautiful in the morning with tea on the porch, watching the sun rise on the big trees in this neighborhood.
Improv last night was amusing. We did a setup where two people reminisce while two others on the other side of the stage act out the images. "Remember when we had that big fight?".
Tonight, a funeral of a middle-aged professional friend of Jane, my wife. Funerals always put me in mind of my own mortality (duh!) and how small a part of the whole each of us is. A very beautiful expression of this and much,much more can be found at
http://www.earthfromtheair.com

We were fortunate enough to see this show in London in May and those French people sure can photograph a planet like nobody else. To work!

Hot today in Denver. Improv tonight. Cannot commend highly enough to you the value of doing improv scenes, getting out of yourself , and having some laughs for a couple of hours. Read Keith Johnstone's book "Impro" and check out his website: http://www.keithjohnstone.com/improv.htm

Hello fellow humans.
But enough about me. Check this out :http://www.lava.net/~artbeat/